


Stunningly Pretty?

by angelwithasaxophone



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Arachnophobia, BAMF Hermione Granger, Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Comfort, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fear, Good Pansy Parkinson, Good Slytherins, Hurt/Comfort, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 19:25:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16414448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelwithasaxophone/pseuds/angelwithasaxophone
Summary: Pansy is in danger in the Forbidden Forest and there's no one around to come to her rescue. Except...Hermione?





	Stunningly Pretty?

“Ah well, you’d better get goin’ Hermione,” said Hagrid, bidding her farewell as she scooped a generous amount of rock cakes into her bag (to be discarded as soon as Hermione could be sure that Hagrid would not notice their disposal). With a smile and a wave, Hermione left the cabin after giving Fang’s ears a ruffle. Hoisting her bag over her shoulder, she set off towards the Castle, intending to nip over to the library before dinner.  
The thoughts of arithmancy were shaken from her mind by a petrified scream echoing from the Forest. She looked around wildly, hoping that Hagrid also had been within earshot of the scream; considering Hermione’s last ventures into the forest had led to close saves from centaur and giant attacks, she was hardly keen for a return visit. The groundskeeper, it seemed, had vanished from thin air, almost as though he had disapparated (which you CANNOT DO in the Hogwarts Castle or grounds). Another scream echoed from the Forest, and Hermione forced herself to settle her resolve.  
Throwing down her bag from her shoulders and drawing her wand from the inside of her robes, Hermione marched determinedly into the Forbidden Forest. She moved quietly and swiftly, her wand at the ready and her eyes alert. She jumped in fright as a large spider scuttled over her shoe, holding herself together in a manner that Ron would be completely unable to muster in the arachnid-heavy circumstances. Then she heard it again-the cry of terror-and now, turning into a darkened mass of tress, she fully understood the horror it was conveying.   
Hanging upside down from the pincers of a truly gargantuan spider, was a shrieking girl whose robes fell over her head, so that Hermione could not determine who it was that she had stumbled across. Her mind flashed immediately to Hagrid’s mention of Aragog falling sick. Perhaps due to his illness, he had not returned to the depths of the Forest that Harry and Ron had previously described as his dwelling place.   
Ducking behind a tree, Hermione made use of the technique she had perfected in her classes, non-verbal spells. With a purposeful movement of her wand, she forcefully thought ‘Reducto’. The pincer holding the girl was shattered to smithereens, and the latter was now tumbling towards the ground, seemingly in no less of a panic then she had been moments earlier. Hermione could see why though: the ground was not particularly inviting either.   
‘Wingardium Leviosa!’ The spell halted the girl’s fall, and Hermione, still not uttering a spoken word, guided her gently to the ground with non-verbal magic; noticing as she did so that the shiny curtains of black hair, now visible, were tousled over the pale face of none other than Pansy Parkinson.   
The gigantic arachnid bore none of Hermione’s gentleness, swinging his remaining pincer ferociously. Pansy appeared unable to move, and despite Aragog’s hesitant and faltering movements towards her (due in part to his illness and lack of support from the few remaining spiders), he would inevitably reach her before she regained control of her limbs. Gritting her teeth Hermione abandoned all pretence and rushed to Pansy’s crumpled form, lifting her unceremoniously into her arms and bolting.  
Aragog let out a cry of fury at Hermione’s disappearing back, and at the anguished sound, she felt Pansy’s pulse accelerate. As the girls resurfaced from the forest, they were cast with the last glimmering rays of twilight. The sun was setting and a distinct chill hung in the air. Once sure they were safe from any beastly threat, Hermione extricated Pansy, who was clinging to her frantically, and deposited her onto the floor. Immediately, Pansy burst into tears, much to Hermione’s shock, given that she had her own fair share of tearful outbursts under her belt.   
Hesitantly, Hermione sat down next to her, for once unsure of how to proceed. She hated Pansy, didn’t she?   
But she could not muster hatred for the clearly traumatised young women sobbing next to her. In fact, the situation mirrored one that Hermione herself had experienced in her first year, facing a mountain troll with Harry and Ron. She had thought there was mutual hatred between them and her too, but now, five years later, it was impossible for her to picture a reality in which they weren’t her closest friends. A terrifying experience, evoked by a dangerous magical creature, had brought them together. Surely things could be the same with Pansy?  
Assuring herself that they could, Hermione shuffled closer to Pansy, placing a hand on her back to rub comforting circles. Sensing no sign of resistance (in fact she could’ve sworn that Pansy had leant closer to her!), Hermione wrapped an arm around her shoulders. It was undeniable this time. Pansy folded into Hermione’s arms, her head resting against her shoulder as sobs shook her trembling body.   
“I-I…I’m so sorry!” she cried suddenly, looking up at Hermione with reddened eyes. Hermione, quite taken aback, didn’t respond for a moment, a silence that Pansy took to be her cue to plough on. “I never should’ve been such a bitch to you all the time, just because you’re in Gryffindor! You’re clever and I’m not, you’re gorgeous and I’m not, you’re just so brave and wonderful and I’m just not good enough for you, so I had to make you think that you’re not good enough for me!”  
Hermione stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, her mind racing. Pansy thought she was clever and brave and…gorgeous? The girl who had once sneered at her being reported as ‘stunningly pretty’ actually saw her that way? But still…what if it was just the shock of the situation, and Pansy didn’t really think that she wasn’t ‘good enough’ for Hermione? And what did she even mean by that?  
Pansy whimpered and made to move away, but Hermione did not relinquish her hold around her shoulders. Taking a deep breath and hoping against hope that she wasn’t making the wrong decision, Hermione said the words that she knew to be true. “I forgive you, Pansy. Yes, there is prejudice between our houses, and yes, we have done nothing to mend that over the past 6 years. But I’m not about to hold a grudge about some teenage drama when the entire world is against us. And from the events of this evening I can certainly say that as much as I may have scorned over your Transfiguration ability earlier, I would never want you to be eaten by a giant spider”. With those last words, Hermione’s lips twitched into a smile, which Pansy returned shyly, but with a slight shiver at the thought of Aragog’s pincers.  
“Let’s go inside,” she said suddenly, grabbing Hermione’s hand and pulling her to her feet. As the tension between them was dissipating, the cold of the night, which had now fallen, had taken its place. Hermione, shaken slightly by the sudden contact, which somehow felt more intimate than her attempts at physical comfort, hid the blush rising on her cheeks and accepted Pansy’s invitation to return to the Castle.  
Together, the girls trudged up to the Great Hall, catching the tail end of dinner before retreating to their respective dormitories, to reflect on a night which they would never forget.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all,   
> Hope you like this one! I've never really delved into Pansmione, but I had an idea for another fic in which I want to reference events that occur in this one. I'm considering making this one a series and exploring the budding relationship between the pair, let me know if that's something anyone would be into.


End file.
